COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 10? 



pump thousands of tons of useful water out of the soil is the height of 

 folly. 



Besides tile injury growing grass causes by abstracting large quan- 

 tities of water from the soil, serious harm is done in another way. It 

 has been found that some substance is formed by the roots of growing 

 grass which is astually poisonous to plant life. This subject -is being in- 

 vestigated at the Duke of Bedford's Experimental Fruit Farm in Here- 

 fordshire, England, and many interesting results have already been puo- 

 lished. The conclusion come to by the experimenters is that growing 

 grass round a tree is nearly the worst treatment to which it can be 

 subjected. 



The trees on the plot where the grass was allowed to grow lost 

 their leaves and looked very unhealthy compared with those which were 

 kept clean- wee Lied, [n another experiment a clear space was kept within 

 six feet arounj each tree, grass being allowed to grow outside of this 

 space. It was found that as soon as the roots grew long enough to 

 reach to the glowing giass the tree began to shew signs of injury and 

 could only be restored to health by removing the grass as the roots ex- 

 tended. This result proves that it is not sufficient to keep a clean 

 space around each tree ; the whole surface must be kept free from grass 

 so that the extending roots may nowhere come across a grassed area. 

 The impossibility of applying manures to the trees when they are sur- 

 rounded by grass is a further objection to its being allowed to grow. 

 Manure applied under these conditions acts mainly as a fertiliser for the 

 grass, and only a small portion of it reaches the roots of the coconut 

 tree. Even if a trench is dug for the manure and is kept free from grass 

 this manure loses a great deal of its value by being applied in such 

 a small space, for it comes into contact with only a few of the roots of 

 the tree. 



From every point of view, then, the coconut planter should look 

 upon grass round bis trees as his greatest enemy; it steals moisture, 

 steals manure and poisons the land. 



The common objection to clean cultivation is that the grass is 

 required for cattle feeding. A little reflection will shew how short- 

 sighted this policy is. The coconut crop is much more valuable than the 

 grass crop, and therefore the attention of the owner should be directed 

 first of all towards obtaining the maximum yield of coconuts. We have 

 seen that this maximum yield cannot be obtained if grass is allowed to 

 grow on the land, and it is certainly not sound business to sacrifice 

 valuable coconuts for the sake of much less valuable grass. The large 

 number of useless cattle which are kept on coconut estates is one of 



